


Tommy Knows: "Damaged"

by ThomE_Gemcity_06



Series: Eloquence of a Secret [5]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon-divergence, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Drama, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode: s1e05 - “Damaged", Friendship, Gen, Secrets, Team Up, Tommy Knows!, casework, relationship drama
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-26
Updated: 2017-05-26
Packaged: 2018-11-05 05:37:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11007096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThomE_Gemcity_06/pseuds/ThomE_Gemcity_06
Summary: Tommy is both fearful and relieved at Oliver's arrest—and it makes him feel guilty. He tries to make up for it.





	Tommy Knows: "Damaged"

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Arrow, its episodes or its characters.   
> Tag: Season 1, Episode 5 - "Damaged"

**aRRoW**

"A party—prison-themed." Tommy repeated once he shut and locked Oliver's bedroom door, giving the three men privacy. "Is it safe to assume that you're playing the chameleon again. Or, and I'm taking liberties with it, but 'We need to appear normal; getting arrested and accused of murder and vigilantism is just the icing for Ollie Queen, let's throw a party!' Is that about the sum of it?"

Oliver was quiet for a brief moment, as if he knew something the others didn't, dressed in his blue prison coveralls. "Yes."

"How are you not worried about this?!" Tommy cried out in frustration.

"It's all part of the plan."

Tommy felt like he was going red in the face. "All part of th--" Diggle held out his hand and silenced the frustrated man.

"Oliver, they caught you on video at the Exchange Building. Are you telling me that you planned that during an assassination attempt?" Diggle questioned.

He nodded. "I knew the camera was there. And I knew that when they reviewed the tapes, they'd eventually find it and arrest me."

"You been preparing for this since the beginning." Diggle was impressed. "You wanted to get arrested." Was the realization.

"I return to Starling City and the vigilante appears a few days later." Oliver reasoned, sitting at his computer desk. "Lance would be stupid to overlook that and I think we've established that he's not."

"And did any of this plan include rotting in prison for the rest of your life?" Tommy demanded, unable to keep quiet anymore. "Because that's what's going to happen. It's a miracle you're not in jail right now instead of throwing a party, and would be if it weren't for Laurel. Don't you care? You're family's freaking, have you even thought about them? What about--" he stopped the thought there.

"The mission comes first." Oliver stated, his expression steeled against the loaded atmosphere between he and his best-friend. He turned his gaze to his computer, "That's were this guy comes in." He jerked his head at Diggle and the bodyguard came around the desk to look at the screen. "Lueo Mueller. German arms dealer. Suspected in the theft of 100 M2-49 Squad Automatic Weapons. Last night he arrived in Starling to sell the guns."

Diggle gave his head a shake of confusion as he straightened. "Don't you imagine you're in enough trouble without you going after this guy?"

"And can you imagine what would happen if a gang got military hardware?" Oliver returned. "I imagine our City's streets turning into a war zone."

"But you're under arrest, Oliver!" was Diggle's reasonable rejoinder. "Which means you can't go after this guy."

"Look, I just want you to shadow Mueller. Track his movements. I want to know when the buy is happening."

"Okay." He sighed. "And how am I supposed to track him?"

Oliver smirked. "Haven't you heard? We billionaire vigilantes love our toys. Everything you need is at the lair."

Diggle nodded and left, clapping Tommy on the shoulder as he passed.

Silence prevailed between the friends. Tommy stared at Oliver for a moment, his heart racing with several conflicting emotions, before he turned to take his own leave.

"You'll be here, won't you, Tommy?"

"Sure," he retorted. "What would it look like if Ollie Queen's best-friend didn't show at his prison-break bash?" and he left, maybe shutting the door louder than was strictly necessary.

**X**

"If this is what you think prison is like, you're in for a rude awakening." Diggle snorted as Tommy closed the bedroom door.

He'd come, of course he had. His emotions had been high and conflicted and he'd let them get a hold of him in the moment. But after gaining some distance Tommy realized that while he would love it if Oliver would stop with all this Hood-business, he'd rather have his friend out and on the night streets than locked up in jail.

"I'm under no illusion, trust me." Oliver took the offered phone. "Mueller's car has been parking in the warehouse district for the last 45 minutes?"

"Yeah. And it's a good place for an arms deal to go down." Diggle agreed.

"Okay." Oliver exhaled and handed the cell back. "Since it appears like this is going down tonight...it looks like the Hood is going to have to make an appearance."

"What?" Tommy interrupted. "Oliver, you can't leave the house. You can't even go for a swim without SWAT kicking down the doors."

"It doesn't have to be _me_ in the Hood." He looked pointedly at Diggle.

Diggle didn't look happy. "That was why you threw this whole party? Just a charade; a hundred witnesses placing you here while I'm across town as the vigilante. This was your great plan from the start?" he demanded.

Oliver grimaced. "I wasn't planning for the deal to go down tonight. I thought just seeing the Hood would have been enough. But we can't let these guns get onto the street."

"So drop a dime to the cops!" Diggle threw out a hand. "Let them take care of it. It's their job!"

But Oliver shook his head. "It has to be the Hood or all of this was just a big screw-up and I really will go to prison."

Diggle looked about ready to walk out when Tommy blurted: "I'll do it!"

That stopped the pair from further argument.

"What?" Oliver repeated. "You'll do it?" was asked in confusion.

Tommy nodded. "I'll go." He squared his shoulders. "I'll go as the Hood."

"Have you finally lost it, Merlyn?" Diggle asked.

"I'm serious!" he defended. "It's just an act, right? I starred in several productions during high school and got rave reviews. Just give me a costume," he mimed a hood, "And some props," he mimed shooting an arrow from a bow, "And I'm good to go."

Oliver stared at him for a moment, before he tossed something at Tommy.

"Ow!" Tommy exclaimed, rubbing at his chin. "What the hell was that for?"

Oliver said critically, "You couldn't even deflect a rubber band ball. How exactly do you expect to dodge bullets?"

"I wasn't ready!" he dropped his hand.

"Exactly." Oliver wasn't moved by his protestation. "You're not ready. And even if you were, the answer would still be the same. You're not going into the field, Tommy—ever. And that's final."

"Wow." Tommy replied sarcastically. "Our new team is doing great." But he fell silent after that.

Oliver looked at him a moment longer, before he turned his attention back to Diggle.

"I didn't join your crusade expecting it to be risk-free, Oliver." Diggle told him. "But I didn't expect you to keep lying to me either. I'm the one guy that you can't, not if we all want to survive this."

"Diggle, it was never my intention for it to go down like this." Oliver swore.

"Yeah." He rubbed a hand over his head. "I'm realizing that."

"So... am I going to prison?"

Diggle sighed and shook his head. "No, man. Just like I said; I got your back."

**X**

Tommy found Oliver in the privacy of the reading room just as he hung up his cell. "Everything alright?"

Oliver nodded, putting the cell in his costume pocket. "That was Diggle. He managed to disrupt the buy. He was spotted, just like planed. And managed to get away without any upsets."

Tommy nodded, leaning his hands on the back of the comfy green couch. "That's good." He observed his friend, "So, why are you tetchy?"

Oliver looked over at him. "I'm not tetchy."

"Right. 'Cause you're not thinking that it should have been you out there?"

"Of course I wish I could have been out there instead." Oliver agreed. "It's me that's supposed to be in the Hood. Me in the line of fire. Diggle didn't--"

"This is what Diggle signed up for." Tommy interrupted. "Did you not listen to his an hour ago?" he straightened and walked around the couch. "This was your plan. It's a good one, in that hanging-onto-the-precipice kind of way. Would have been even better if you'd filled Dig and I on a few things first, but beggars can't be choosers. So, suck it up," he clapped him affably on the shoulder, "You're on the bench for a bit."

Oliver gave a heavy exhale. "It's sucks being benched!" he groaned.

Tommy gave a self-deprecating chuckle. "Join the club, buddy. I'm just the bench warmer."

"Tommy--" he started.

Tommy just shook his head. " _Another_ note of interest... I ran into Laurel as she was leaving. Everything's okay, right? With the case... and in general?" he sat on the couch.

"The case is fine." He sat in the edge of the couch, elbows on his knees, rubbing briefly at his forehead with the heals of his hands before he rose his head and looked at his best-friend. "Something... happened."

Tommy's throat tightened a little. "Yeah? Like what."

"I... showed her my scars. And we-we kissed."

Tommy was quiet as those same feelings punctured his chest as when Oliver had asked Diggle to join the Hood Team; jealousy, anger, denial, and perhaps acceptance of the inevitable. This was one messed up love triangle they found themselves in and Tommy knew he was losing—in both cases.

"Tommy?"

"Is that all?" he wondered, and Oliver shook her head.

"She caught me out on a lie from the polygraph—accused me of being the Hood. I lied. Sold her some bullshit. She was too close to the truth. I got scared," he admitted.

"I think..." Tommy finally spoke. "You did the right thing. After what happened at Iron Heights, she wasn't ready to hear the truth. It's too soon. After everything... she's just not ready, Oliver. At least for _you_ to be the Hood. Maybe you and him separately. But not together."

"I know." Oliver sighed and slumped back against the couch. "She was right when she said nothing could happen between us. I didn't realize that there was actually such a thing as 'too much history'. But as long as there's need of the Hood, nothing could happen, with her or anyone else."

"Oliver--" Tommy started in protest when a knock at the door interrupted him.

"Mr. Queen? Can I get you any refreshments from the bar?"

"No thanks." Oliver called, standing. "I was coming back out now anyway."

Tommy jumped to his feet then dove for cover as the door was kicked in and a guy in a waiter's outfit burst through the door with a gun. Oliver fought the guy and Tommy just tried to stay out of the way, before three shots from Lance's service weapon decided the winner.

**X**

"So, you're a free man." Tommy said after Lance grudgingly took away the ankle monitor. "What's the plan?"

"Mueller." Oliver said lowly with his Hood-face. "He's gonna try and sell those weapons again. This time, I'm going to stop him."

"I didn't expect anything else." This was definitely much better than his best-friend rotting in prison.

**aRROW**


End file.
